Overflowing

Why yes, that is the sound of  

my heart filling up with love and delight....

Time: Early morning but not too early....just right
Me: Yaelie, did you sleep well?
Yael: Yes.
Me: What was your best dream?
Yael: David. We were picking him up at camp.

Time: about 10 minutes later, the next child comes into the kitchen...
(oh, and he gave me a big morning snuggly hug. Sigh...)
Me: Sammy! How did you sleep?
Sam: Good.
Me: What was your best dream?
Sam: Camp.

And then...to make it all even better....this was the status I posted on Facebook before bed, and I woke up to the comment below...

(I took out the name of my colleague who posted this from camp, just to keep her privacy.)

Does it get any better than this!?

I'm a happy ima today.

Cool Tushies

Real quote from these children:  

We're cooling off our tushies!

Do you like it better like this....

or like this...using a 70s action from Pioneer Woman?

What was your Best Shot this week? See Tracey's place for more.

A Little Lovin'....

With one kid away at camp, I get to snuggle a little more with the other ones.

Gotta keep your blessings close.

See more Summer Stock Sunday over at Robin's pad.
P.S. Robin, does this count? It's taken outside in the summer!

I feel so blessed to be able to snuggle with my boy. I hope that Gilad's mother gets the pleasure soon.

Dispatches from Oconomowoc

Today we received 3 letters from David at camp. Yep, three.
(The third was relatively incomprehensible, I think it might be a continuation of an-as-yet-unreceived letter!)

The first is the required "ticket into dinner letter" that the kids have to write on the first day.
I laughed a little as I read it because I didn't sign him up for (expensive) horseback riding. Guess he missed that memo! A friend pointed out that he forgot to sign it (there's no line, probably why he missed it!), but luckily, I'm quite sure of its authorship.

Here's the second letter:

So...do you think he really misses me? (Note, it's addressed only to MOM) Or do you think that he's trying to make me feel better? Maybe a little of both.

One week down, one to go. I do miss my boy. I feel better going into Shabbat with this sign of life.

Shabbat Shalom!

One Happy Camper

So...we dropped off our oldest kid at camp on Monday.
(This is not a post about the importance of Jewish summer camp - this is purely an Ima post.)

Which means it's now been 2 days since I've heard from him.

I haven't called.
I haven't texted.
I haven't emailed.

Okay, that last one was a little lie. A rabbi-friend emailed to ask me a reasonable camp/work-related question. I snuck in a P.S. "how's my kid?"

But aside from that?

Truthfully, I miss him. I miss having him around and a part of our daily lives. But I'm also so curious to know how he's doing, I want to hear about every little detail, I want to know everything.

And I know that I just won't.

That is what I realized today. I just can't know it all any more. When he started in daycare (8 years ago!?), I got a little slip of paper at the end of every day. It charted every diaper change, every meal, every nap, every everything and I got a little written note telling me how his day went. Things have certainly changed since then.

But now? There will be mountains of details that he's not going to share with me. Not even because he's being secretive or whatever, but because that's just how it is.

And that's the sound of my heart breaking a little....

...but also rejoicing, too.
He's independent, bright, happy, and ready.

He's still my baby. Always.
But he's growing up too.
And that's okay.

Early Man

"Seriously, Mom, the fish was this big."

Uh-huh.

See more summertime fun at Summer Stock Sunday.

Separation Anxiety

I really want to write a post about packing up my oldest kid for his first foray into overnight summer camp. Alone. Without me there.

But I'm not quite ready yet.

More to come.